You are going to love this 2020 regular label that is so fresh and juicy with blood, red cherry, and a lovely earthy forest floor undercurrent that it is anything but regular. Wow, just delicious. The estate pinot is made with a mix of vineyards: Sexton, Applejack, Primavera, and Tarraford, harvested between February and April. The average yields were lower across all the pinot blocks thanks to tighter and smaller bunches, all set off by wonderful natural acidity. The fruit is hand picked, chilled and cold soaked over four days before it warms to a wild ferment in small vessels, both stainless steel and open oak vats. About 40 percent of the fruit goes in the whole bunch, and it is all matured in French oak, 10% new, for eight months in a mix of 225-litre barriques and 4000-litre oak vats. The winery suggests handmade pappardelle and shredded confit duck leg and arugula, and I say bring it on.

Incredible colour, just a few pay grades up from rose. So bright and vibrant to look at. All raised in ceramic eggs, 101 days on skins, righteous work with grenache.Rose hip tea, lipstick, cherry and dried herb scents. So pure, shimmering, silky and yet wrapped in a web of ultra fine, wet stone tannins. Magnificent texture. Purity, drive, vibrancy, a beautiful lightweight yet detailed wine of incredible energy and poise. So delicious. So very, very good. World beating stuff. Benchmark.

Blackberry, ripe raspberry, sarsaparilla, spicy, with some sweet sawn wood top notes (though nothing overt, I might add). Powerful and firm, dusty and slightly rusty/ferrous tannin, chamomile tea mouth-perfume, maybe even a cola-nut exotic character in the mix, long and shapely, with Barolo-esque tannin to close. Feels long term. Outstanding.

Spice, fresh raspberry, sage and dried mint and flowers. Crisp with a fresh crunch of pomegranate, slightly peppery, cool and perfumed, stony almost concrete dust tannin, flesh and succulence, with high cheekbones and fine tailoring. Love the cranberry dryness and fine grip of dusty tannin on a long raspberry sorbet finish. Beautiful expression of Grenache.

Ironheart. An excellent name for such an iodine-laced and ferrous wine.Dried mint, sage, iodine, blackberry, spice. The region is stamped firmly on this wine. It picks up on the palate, with deep ferrous tannin, plenty more of that inky and sizzled sage leaf character, deep black fruit, menthol, bacon bone and black olive flavour, furry feel and a powerful finish of fennel and sage sausage. It offers a distinctive flavour profile, and it’s a curious wine in a way, high quality, but kind of overt.

Honey drizzled corn flakes, aniseed and fresh mint, orange and peach juice, a dusting of spice. Lovely chew and grip, a dried flower mouth-perfume, distinct umami almost teriyaki chicken flavour, fresh feel to acidity, even though it’s a wine of bold shape and scale, dry and briney to close. So much interest and things to explore here, as it rolls around the mouth. Excellent.

Fragrant, with scents of candle wax, faint honeycomb, ginger, preserved lemon, jasmine. Lovely stuff. Waxy texture, slippery finish, long and persistent and complex. A feast of stone fruit flavours, ginger-lemon tea, green herbs and salted cashew nuts. Excellent. Complex, medium weight white.

Pale garnet colour. Sappy, sultry, slate-like tannin hewn red of just shy of medium weight. Very fragrant, rose water, maraschino cherry, pot pourri. Beautiful perfume. Flavours are in the cherry-cranberry zone, those tannins though… and general sense of vitality and freshness. Excellent wine here. Structure, complexity, excellence.

Garnet coloured with black rim. Looks deep and moody. Wood spice, clove, cedar, darker berries, liquorice, brined olive notes. Trim and taut, controlled and long, serious feeling wine of depth and complexity, seasoned well in a style that favours a bit of mocha-spice oak presence. It fits the premium bill, needs some time, will mature well. Serious, spicy, dark fruited grenache with tension and drive.

Deep purple-black colored, the 2020 Lassegue needs a little swirling to begin, to unlock bright, cheery scents of fresh blackberries, black raspberries and redcurrants, plus hints of black cherry preserves, charcoal, woodsmoke and underbrush with a waft of tapenade. The medium to full-bodied palate has a firm structure of ripe, rounded tannins and just enough freshness to support the generous black fruits, finishing long and earthy.

Spicy, curry leaf and black fruits, coffee and tobacco. Medium to full-bodied, again quite savoury and spicy, a little ferrous, fresh blackberry and tobacco, slightly too brisk lemony acidity, though does have energy, and a firm finish of olive leaf and black fruit.

From across the valley, on Howell Mountain, there’s the 2017 La Jota Merlot, which is dark and dense, with black fruit, anise, cedar and spice. It’s a big wine, but it’s still light on its feet, with good freshness.

The 2016 Mt. Brave Merlot comes from Mt. Veeder, above the west side of the valley. The wine displays lively red fruit, baking spices, a savory note of cedar and firm but approachable tannins on its long finish.

Another beautifully limpid and glossy en primeur sample with a radiant and almost fluorescent pink/lilac rim. Open, expressive and fragrantly fresh on the nose with a lovely combination of deep purple flowers (peonies perhaps), blue and purple berry and stone fruit and a traditional classroom full of pencil shavings (if that is the appropriate collective noun!).Bright, light, aerial and almost gravity-defying on the palate despite the considerable density and intensity of the fruit, this is one of those deceptively powerful wines because of the sheer quality and compactness of the grain of the tannins. There has been a sharp and steep progression at Lassègue in recent vintages and this is perhaps their best yet. Exquisitely joyous and exquisitely complete.

Women of Wine: The Best Wines From Today's Female WinemakersKate Ayres of Oregon's Penner-Ash is all about uniquely expressive styles of Oregon Pinot Noir. The Penner-Ash Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2018 is sourced from six regions, resulting in a complex yet balanced bottle full of strawberry jam and ripe cherry as well as plum and peppercorns.

International Chardonnay Day: The best classic and natural white wines to celebrate withThe Yarra Valley, close to Melbourne in Victoria, is one of Australia’ s cool climate regions where pinot noir and chardonnay grapes thrive. From a small producer, this bottle is appropriately subtle and restrained. While the wine is fermented and aged in oak barrels, the richer, buttery style of Australian chardonnay is now discouraged and it does not dominate the rounded, mellow flavours of stone fruits and nectarines and the finish, as with the best chardonnay’s remains crisp and fresh on the palate. A special occasion bottle – try this one with roast loin of pork or as a midweek treat with a mushroom risotto.

A savory, mineral-driven nose tees up a palate of excellent concentration, where crunchy yet still somehow pliant tannins frame flavors of cassis, blackberry and black cherry liqueur, pencil led, and melted chocolate, all spiced with star anise that shimmers through the finish. Great now, and with lots of time left—easily another 15 years or more.

Taut and generous at the same time, with aromas of Chinese five-spice powder, goji berries, and pomegranates before a palate of sweet, generous fruit that’s framed by sweet tannins, all of it dusted with cinnamon, cloves, and allspice. The suggestion of sage smolders in the background, as well as a hint of rosemary and mint. It’s cut through with mouthwatering acidity, making this particularly food-friendly. Enjoy over the next decade…or right now.

Wine of the WeekBright gold with hints of peach and citrus fruit aromas. Well balanced with a core of concentrated fruit flavors and sharp, focused finish.

Ayres introduced the flagship Penner-Ash 2018 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir as the wine that put Willamette Valley on the map. It is sourced from 18 vineyards in nine sub-appellations and is a snapshot of the region.According to Kate, sub-appellations like Dundee Hills add spice tones, while Eola-Amity and Chehalem Hills offer red fruit and texture. Ribbon Ridge to the north gives the blend dark fruit qualities and southerly McMinnville adds white pepper.Aged in 23% new French oak, the Penner-Ash release expressed an earthiness with balanced red and black fruit flavors. A slight sweetness on mid-palate finished with a fresh acidity and savory notes. Tonya spoke of the black fruit and black tea flavors as a perfect pair with grilled salmon.

The 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon Réserve Spéciale may very well be the finest wine I have tasted from Arrowood in this incarnation. Readers will have to be patient with the 2017, as it is a powerhouse. The purity of the flavors is just striking. Sweet red cherry, pomegranate, mocha, spice and cedar all open gradually in the glass. This is a fabulous example of Sonoma Cabernet. Don't miss it, but give the tannins time to soften.

The 2018 Syrah Brosseau is dense, powerful and meaty. Inky dark fruit, gravel, cured meat and dried flowers. A wine of real density and power, the Brosseau Syrah is endowed with massive power and concentration. There is so much to the 2018. This site on decomposed granite with limestone yields wines of tremendous complexity and character. The 2018 is fabulous.